It's graduation season, so I thought I would write a post about the first person in my family to attend college. My great uncle, Rudolph Bellan, attended Ohio State in the early to mid-1920s. 'Uncle Rudy,' as my mom and uncle call him, was born in Cleveland, Ohio in May 1900. He was the eldest child of George and Ursula Bellan, who were Croatian immigrants.

Getting a college education was still rare at this time, especially for a child of urban blue collar immigrants. Young people were lucky if they were even able to finish their secondary education. Rudy did not go off to college right after secondary school; in the 1920 census, he is working at a clerical job with a newspaper and still living with his parents and seven siblings in Cleveland. But by 1922, he is listed as a first-year student in Ohio State's student directory. (By the way, Google Books is a great resource for older university directories.)

Ohio State University Bulletin, Volume 26, Issue 6

The directory states each student's area of study, year of study, hometown, local Columbus address, and phone number. I also found Rudy's name in the 1922 OSU yearbook in which he is listed as a Newman Club member (Newman organizations on university campuses are typically groups of Catholic students, so this makes sense because Rudy and his family were Catholic.). I haven't been able to find anything from Ohio State linking Rudy to his studies in 1923, but he is listed as a 'student' in the 1923 Cleveland, Ohio directory:

Cleveland, Ohio Directory 1922

I have found a couple of interesting OSU mentions of Rudy for 1924. He is pictured in the OSU 1924 yearbook as a member of Sigma Delta Chi, a 'professional journalistic society.' (Click on the photo for a larger image.)

From the 1924 Makio (Ohio State Yearbook)

And, finally, from the March 9, 1924 edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Rudy is listed as being in charge of the publicity for the campus's 10th annual intramural festival.

I have not found anything definitive to this point that proves Rudy actually graduated from Ohio State. The best clue I have right now is that, in the 1940 census, he listed his 'highest grade of school completed' as 'C4,' meaning four years of college. He came back to Cleveland and became a restaurant proprietor. Sometime after 1940, he and his wife moved to Detroit, Michigan, which is where he lived the remainder of his life.

I like Rudy's story because it truly shows the opportunities that awaited for immigrants and their families when they came to America. If George and Ursula had stayed in Croatia, would their children have had the opportunity to pursue a college education? Probably not. In the 1940 census, George and Ursula list their 'highest grade of school completed' as '6,' and even that may have been generous.

Not to get up too high on my soapbox, but these types of stories need to be told, and they have relevance with regards to today's immigration issues. America is STILL a land of opportunity for immigrants. Parents still bring their families here to find better lives. Every year around this time, you can Google search for news stories about the child or grandchild of an immigrant who becomes the first in the family to graduate with a college degree. So often, we are so overly concerned about the 'unskilled and uneducated' immigrants that we fail to see the great potential in not only them, but in their children and grandchildren, too.

I returned home yesterday after spending three days in Cincinnati for the annual conference of the Ohio Genealogical Society. It was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot more than I though I would. The Millennium Hotel in Downtown Cincinnati provided very nice facilities for the event and ALL of the OGS volunteers with whom I interacted were exceptionally helpful and cordial. Thank you to the OGS for making my first genealogy conference experience a positive one!

What did I come away with? Here are some of my highlights and favorite tips that I learned:

1.) I attended two lectures by Dr. Thomas W. Jones, who is a nationally-known genealogical researcher, educator, and author. He gave a thorough and informative keynote address at the start of the conference on Thursday on the subject of finding "unfindable" ancestors. I also attended his lecture on genealogical documentation, which, prior to this talk, I knew almost nothing about. The latter lecture left me quite overwhelmed and intimidated, which is rare for me when it comes to anything scholarly. I understand why thorough documentation is needed in genealogical research, but there just seem to be so many "rules" when it comes to genealogical citations that I feel like I would never get it right. Dr. Jones is VERY knowledgeable on the subject and seems to be a good teacher, but I left that talk longing for one of my mathematically-based homework sets from graduate school.

2.) I attended two of the German-track lectures by Dr. Michael D. Lacopo. If you ever have a chance to hear him speak, I highly recommend it. Not only does he give some great tips, but he is witty and tells some great stories. Interestingly, he started out as a veterinarian, but has years of experience in genealogy and has become a professional expert. His path to genealogy proficiency has given me hope, because I also have a background in science but also have come to love genealogy.

3.) I learned about the importance of utilizing Gazetteers in European research. What is a gazetteer? A gazetteer is more or less a geographical directory. It is a publication that lists and describes villages, cities, and counties of a particular country or region. For German research, THE gazetteer to use is the Meyers Gazetteer of the German Empire, which was published 1912-1913 and lists information for 210,000+ locations in pre-World War I Germany. This publication is available at most larger libraries AND on digitally on Ancestry.com as well. So now, I can look up some of my husband's ancestral villages (well, the ones I know the names of) and learn about what trades were in the town, how many churches and schools there were, population, transportation, and government infrastructure. SUCH a useful tool.

4.) Speaking of European research, several of the speakers very much emphasized doing exhaustive research on immigrant ancestors IN AMERICA, before tracking down records in Europe. This makes a lot of sense to me, so I'm going to focus a lot more of my research efforts on trying to gather American church records and documents for my and my husband's ancestors. That's not to say that I won't still order a Family History Library microfilm or two every now and then, but I know there is still so much more that I can find here first.

5.) And that sort of leads me to my next highlight: Many of the speakers advocated obtaining church records, as opposed to just civil records, whenever possible. Parish pastors and ministers often kept track of MORE family information than what is simply listed on county or town marriage records, for instance. Sometimes that little bit of extra information can help you break through a brick wall, especially when it comes to identifying parentage or what village your ancestor came from in the Old Country.

6.) I have been instructed NOT to be intimidated of church records hand-written in German script OR German-language newspapers printed in what is known as 'Fraktur' typeface. Several of the speakers advocated practicing handwriting in German script letters to become familiar with the how the letters are formed and what they look like. I actually feel like learning this is something that is way more attainable for me than the documentation stuff.

7.) Obtaining your ancestors' U.S. military records is NOT as difficult as you may think. I went to a great presentation by Michael L. Strauss about how to locate and obtain WWII records. Military personnel records for discharges before 1951 are considered public record and can be obtained by anyone through filling out a form. Unfortunately, a massive fire in 1973 destroyed 80% of the Army and 75% Air Force OMPFs (Office Military Personnel Files). The other branches' OMPFs were not affected. So, I plan on requesting the file of my grandmother, who served in the Coast Guard during WWII. My grandfather served in the Army during WWII, so there is a pretty good chance that his OMPF is gone. However, Mr. Strauss told us that the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis also keeps the 'Morning Reports' for each military branch on file, so those can help fill some gaps in where my grandfather was located and what he was doing at different points of his service. Morning Reports, however, can only be obtained by physically going to the facility in St. Louis. Road trip!

8.) Google Earth can be used to make 'family history videos' that you can email to family members or place on a webpage or blog. This mini-presentation in the exhibition hall was given by Lisa Louise Cooke. Basically, you can import videos, photos, documents - anything really - into Google Earth and plot them on a map AND you can even overlay historical maps onto the current-day Google satellite views. She showed us a video she made about some of her ancestors and it looked like a really cool way to tell a family's story and make it interesting even for people who are not genealogy-inclined. I can't wait to try this with my family's history.

Over the past few days, I have put my research on hold in order to spend my few free moments preparing for the annual Ohio Genealogical Society conference that I will be attending next Thursday through Saturday in Cincinnati, Ohio. This will be my first genealogy conference. I'm excited, but a little nervous at the same time. I've been researching my and my husband's families for a couple of years now, but I know I am still very much a newbie in the world of genealogy and family history research. I'm a pretty fast learner, so I'm not too worried about 'getting lost' in any of the sessions or anything, but I am hoping there are other non-professional 'hobbyists' there too so I won't feel to out of place next to the professionals. I'm also nervous because I won't see my husband or kids for three days, which will be a nice break for me, but it's something that is out of the ordinary for me, so, of course, I worry. :-)

The conference this year is in Cincinnati, which is great because I am already very familiar with the city. (We lived in northern Kentucky for nearly five years and during that time I got to know the city very well.) The conference organizers have arranged for the Main Branch of the Cincinnati Public Library to stay open after hours on Thursday so that conference attendees may do some evening genealogy research. Today, I've been going through the library's online catalog and printing out holding information for books and microfilms that I may like to look at. I've also been spending some time looking through the conference's schedule and syllabus (notes for each presentation), and deciding which sessions I will attend. Because the conference is in Cincinnati this year, there is a pretty heavy focus on German genealogy and heritage. My husband has a lot of German ancestors, so I will hopefully learn a lot about how to learn about those lines, but I'm also a little bummed that there doesn't seem to be much to aid me in tracing my Italian, Croatian, and Polish ancestors who settled in Cleveland. They have the conference in a different part of the state each year, so I'm sure at some point I will have a chance to attend one of their conferences that will help me more with that aspect of my research.

So, hopefully I will be able to write a blog post or two while I am at the conference, just to summarize what I've learned and to talk about the experience overall. Stay tuned!

My great-grandfather, Michael Bodziony, was born in Poland and immigrated to America in 1910. He settled in Cleveland, Ohio and worked as a foundry laborer until he passed away in 1941. For part of that time, he was employed at the Ferro Machine & Foundry Co. of Cleveland, Ohio. His WWI registration card from 1918 lists his employer at the bottom:

This photo, which was taken in 1924, depicts one of the company's factory units, which was located at the intersection of E. 66th Street and Hubbard Ave. It was only a few blocks away from great-grandpa's neighborhood, so he did not have to walk too far or take public transportation. (Photo courtesy of The Cleveland Memory Project and can be viewed online here.)

Just for fun, I also found this old advertisement from the June 1908 issue of Popular Mechanics. It's pretty neat to see pictures of the types of engines my great-grandfather helped to make.

From the June 1908 issue of 'Popular Mechanics."

Later in his life, Michael worked for another company by the name of Drop Dies and Forgings. This is the employer that is listed on his death certificate. This company, which still does forging and tool and die making, is now known as Wyman-Gordon Forgings and is still located at E. 61st St. and Sheridan, again not far from where Michael and his family lived.

As you can imagine, foundry work was a hazardous job. Not only was there a constant danger of serious burns from molten metal, but working with heavy machinery often led to major physical accidents, resulting in crushed bones and amputations. Repetitive work with heavy metal tongs and molds caused arthritis and other bone and joint problems. Decibel levels were unsafe and caused hearing loss, and looking at white-hot molten levels with no protection was dangerous to the eyes. Foundries are full of harmful chemicals which can lead to cancer and other health problems over long-term exposure. Michael passed away of stomach cancer when he was 58 years old. Granted, the average life expectancy was lower back then (which probably had something to do with hazardous working environments across the board), but I think it's safe to assume that his cancer was probably somehow linked to his work in the foundry. (There was no OHSA back then.)

The children in our parish made their First Holy Communion this weekend, so I thought I would share some photos from my First Communion. In the Roman Catholic Church, children typically receive their First Communion in April or May of their second grade year. It's a big deal for the kids and their families; the boys wear suits and ties and the girls wear pretty white dresses with veils. Many families celebrate with large family parties.

I made my first communion in 1987 at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Parma, Ohio. Here are me and my classmates in the church with our teachers and Fr. Werner, who is standing right at the center. Fr. Werner was one of the older priests in our parish at the time, and he was more or less "in charge" of ministry to the younger kids at St. Anthony. He would visit our classrooms and tell us stories or just let us ask him questions. His hands would shake a little, and I remember that he'd always keep a tissue up his robe sleeve. We enjoyed his visits and we all remember him fondly.

I was not (and still am not) a girly girl. I remember shopping in the storewith my mom for a communion dress and hating ALL of them in the stores. They were too lacy or too poofy and I just didn't like any of the styles So, my Great Aunt Helen, who was a pretty talented seamstress, made one for me. I picked out the fabric and specified that I didn't like a lot of lace or "fanciness." And it turned out great! Looking at the photos, I STILL really like it; I think it's a pretty classic design. (Not surprisingly, I had similar troubles when searching for a wedding dress, but that's a tale for another day.) I'm not going to try to make excuses for my hairstyle; it was 1987. :-)

Today's family treasure is not something I have inherited from an ancestor, nor is it something of mine with a lot of monetary value. It is my family's National Parks Passport book. For those of you unfamiliar with these books, they are published by the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). Just about every NPS-designated national park, historic site, memorial, monument, scenic river or trail, etc. has a rubber passport stamp that you can get at the visitor centers. The stamps show the name of the park, the date, and the location. My husband and I purchased our book on our honeymoon in 2004. We drove out to the Black Hills area of South Dakota and spent a week exploring the area and visiting NPS sites like the Badlands, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, and Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Since then, we've visited many other NPS locations all over the country, and we still like to plan our trips in areas where we haven't yet collected any stamps. I hope my kids and grandkids hold onto this book after I'm gone. It's a memento of a hobby both me and my husband enjoy greatly and, because each stamp is dated, it tells the story of our travels during different points of our lives.

I haven't posted anything on my blog in well over a week because my husband and I took the kids down to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for a Spring Break vacation. It was great; warm weather, excellent creole and seafood, and the kids did better than expected with all of the driving. The only rough part of the week for me was NO GENEALOGY RESEARCH(!) We did visit a couple cemeteries on the trip, but only to look at the neat vaults and above-ground graves that we are not used to seeing up north.

When we weren't exploring the area, I spent some time on my iPad browsing through Etsy and Ebay, looking through old photographs, postcards, and other random ephemera. I came upon some old maps, which isn't unusual, but a light bulb when off and I started getting this vision in my head of something I wanted to create in my house. Since we moved into this house last year, I've been trying to think of a way to create some sort of 'genealogy wall.' I had originally wanted to create a traditional 'family tree,' mixing old family photos with newer ones of my family. However, I don't have an equal amount of photos from each branch of our family, and I could just never picture how I wanted it to look.

Back to this 'vision.' I want to use maps to depict our family's journey. This idea seems natural to me; I've always loved looking at maps, I was a geography minor in college, and I used to make a living in a profession dependent on maps. I'm now currently in the process of buying older maps of the places where my and my husband's ancestors lived, worked, and traveled through. At first, I thought it would be neat if I could get a map that itself was contemporary with WHEN our ancestors were living in a particular place. This works with our more recent ancestors, but, of course, it can get very pricey when you are looking for an 18th century map of northwestern France. So, I decided to look for maps that were a little bit older, affordable, and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. (I told my husband this is coming out of our decorating budget :-) I'm searching for maps of all scales: nations, regions, counties, even individual cities that I know our ancestors had connections with. I'm going to write (or stencil) on the wall: Our Family's Journey. I've located and contacted a framing store in town that knows how to properly preserve and frame archival prints. Instead of nailing the framed maps to the wall, I'm going to use floating shelves, so that I can rearrange the display easily and even add to it without having the hassle of making more screw and nail holes.

So far, I've purchased a map of northeastern France and one of an individual department where my husband's ancestors lived before coming to America. I also found a map from a late 1890s atlas depicting all the steamship line routes from Europe to the Americas. In my display, I think I also may include maps of the individual cities our ancestors embarked and disembarked from: Bremen, Naples, Antwerp, New York, New Orleans, and Baltimore. Of the maps I've purchased so far, this one is my favorite - it's an 1837 map of Galicia, where my Polish great-grandparents came from. I spent a little more money on this one, but I learned it's really hard to find a map of Galicia depicted by itself. (It's bigger than my scanner, so this is just a portion of it; and it looks a little distorted because it's in a plastic sleeve.)

Map of Galicia, 1837

But since I want my wall to tell a story, I've also been looking for prints, postcards, and other pieces of artwork or ephemera that helps to do so. I found some charming prints of a German village and farm, along with a market scene from Croatia. These scenes are ones that our ancestors probably encountered and experienced while living in the Old Country. And I'm not limiting myself to scenes from Europe; I've found a 100+ year old postcard of my husband's hometown church, and I have my eye on an early 20th century photograph of workers in a Cleveland steel mill.

German farm scene

German village

It may take a few months to accomplish, but I can't WAIT to see how this turns out. Sometimes a genealogy withdrawal is a good thing! :-)